Tackling the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Ocean Clean-Up

Contributing to the largest cleanup in history

On 8 September 2018, The Ocean Cleanup is launching the world’s first system to rid the oceans of plastic. Setting sail from San Francisco Bay, it will be towed underneath the iconic Golden Gate Bridge on its way to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - the largest accumulation of plastic in the world.

DSM is there to support, sharing our unique knowledge and expertise, which includes our employee volunteers, and our innovative material Dyneema®, the world’s strongest fiber™. Dyneema is 15 times stronger than steel and extremely suitable for tough marine environment. In the current design it is used in the tow and closing lines of the system.

Partnership for healthy oceans

With a shared passion for sustainability, DSM has teamed up with The Ocean Cleanup’s ambitious mission to develop advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic from the project’s outset.

This summer, Boyan Slat, CEO and Founder of The Ocean Cleanup and DSM's CEO Feike Sijbesma signed a partnership agreement for a period of five years to further enable and advocate for healthy oceans.

Watch the deployment of System001 live

The Ocean Cleanup aims to remove 50% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch over the course of 5 years.

On 8 September between 12:00 and 14:00 PT, they will be launching their first ocean cleanup system from their assembly yard in Alameda, through San Francisco Bay, towards the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Creating brighter living

Healthy oceans are critical to sustaining life; regulating our climate, contributing more than half of the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere, and serving as our largest source of protein. As a company committed to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including Climate Action (SDG 13) and Life Below Water (SDG 14), we continuously innovate and work with partners to develop solutions that are better for people and the planet.

Veramaris® algal oil has a high concentration of the key fatty acids needed to feed farmed salmon and maintain their health. Feeding salmon one metric tonne of Veramaris would leave 60 tonnes of wild-caught fish where they belong, in the ocean.